Golf is a game played on a natural surface, although some surfaces can be artificial. In golf, an individual uses a golf club to strike a ball (which ball can be mounted on a tee); ultimately desiring to sink the ball into a hole located some distance away from the tee. After striking the ball from a tee, the golfer must transport clubs, golf accessories, and personal items to the ball's new location and repeat the striking and transporting process over the length of the hole until the golfer ultimately reaches the green area and completes the hole by sinking the ball in the hole. Typically, the golfer's clubs and various golf accessories and personal items can be located in a bag. After the completion of a hole, the golfer then transports clubs, golf accessories, and personal items to the next tee area. This sequence is repeated throughout a round of golf, which traditionally is played outdoors on a course that consists of eighteen holes and spans a distance of between three to eight miles.
A golf bag for the transportation of clubs, golf accessories, and personal items can be standard equipment for any golfer. Traditional golf bags generally are cylindrical in shape with an opening at the top of the bag to accommodate insertion and removal of clubs and some types of accessories which may be elongated. Additionally, traditional golf bags typically are equipped with compartments or pockets placed at various locations on the outer circumference to facilitate transportation and storage of golf accessories and personal items.
The storage of clubs, golf accessories, and personal items adds substantial weight to golf bags and often creates heavy loads for golfers to lift, move, carry, or otherwise transport about the golf course. To ease this burden, some golf bags have incorporated shoulder straps or hand grips located on the bag's outer circumference. Some golfers hire caddies or assistants to carry the golf bag throughout a round of golf. Some golfers mount their bags on a pull or push carts which can be rolled or on motorized golf carts.
Golfers expend considerable physical effort, in addition to expense, in avoiding the burdens of manually lifting, carrying, moving, and/or transporting their golf bags around a golf course. Although wheels can be mounted to the base of golf bags in a permanently fixed and exposed location, such wheels are awkward in appearance. Additionally, such wheels can be hazardous, especially when golfers insert or remove these wheeled bags from trunks or storage hatches of vehicles. Additionally, golf bags with wheels in permanently fixed and exposed positions generally do not fit within the recessed areas of typical platforms of motorized golf carts. Wheels which are permanently fixed and exposed also create bulky and irregular shapes making it difficult to store such golf bags in conventional storage stands, racks, bins, lockers, trunks, platforms or other similar storage configurations found in and around golf courses. Additionally, golf bags with permanently fixed and exposed wheels do not fit within travel containers or systems for traditional golf bags.
Some golf bag designs have sought to address the awkward appearance, difficulties in handling and storage, and operational hazards posed by permanently fixed and exposed wheels by making the wheels detachable. However, after detachment, the wheels and their associated equipment must be stored either within the bag itself or in a separate carryall or container. Stowing the detached wheels and associated equipment within the bag, severely compromises the amount of space within the bag's storage area for clubs. Such reduction in space precludes or limits room needed for the adequate storage of clubs, golf accessories, and personal items. It also impairs a golfer's ability to remove and re-insert clubs. Furthermore, a golfer must expend considerable time and effort attaching the wheels and their associated equipment to the bag before starting play, and detaching and storing these items after play is completed.
Additionally, designs with detachable wheels and their associated equipment typically require: that the length and circumference of the bag be substantially increased (compared to traditional golf bags); that the modified bag be reshaped in an entirely new configuration, such as a square or rectangle; or that the outer compartments of the bag be materially expanded to accommodate the storage of the detached wheels and their associated equipment as well as golf accessories and personal items. Such modifications create an excessively bulky and deformed rolling bag bearing little resemblance to traditional golf bags—making the bag substantially greater in weight; difficult to maneuver; and generally unsuitable for the transportation and storage of clubs, golf accessories, and personal items. Enlarging the bag's length and circumference (in addition to the bag's outer compartments) also causes the breadth of the bag to be so broad, that it cannot fit within the recessed areas of platforms on the rear of motorized golf carts. Furthermore, the modified bag is dimensionally incompatible with conventional storage stands, racks, bins, lockers, trunks, platforms, and other similar storage configurations typically found in and around golf courses and residences, and also within travel containers and systems for traditional golf bags.
Prior attempts to overcome the challenges faced when incorporating a transportation system into a traditionally shaped golf bag have not been satisfactory.
Presently there is no golf bag with a three or more wheel integral transportation system, and there is no three or more wheel integral transportation system which can be deployed and retracted without requiring the assembly and disassembly of component parts. Additionally, there is no golf bag having an integral transportation system that maintains the appearance and dimensions of a traditional golf bag; that includes adequate storage space for clubs, golf accessories, and personal items; that uses a portion of the space commonly used for shorter golf club storage to stow a portion of the integral transportation system; that does not limit the regulatory permissible number of clubs that may be stored in the club storage area; that reduces the operational hazards associated with transferring the golf bag assembly in and out of vehicle trunks or hatches; that fits in the recessed areas of platforms on the rear of motorized carts; and/or that is dimensionally compatible with conventional storage stands, racks, bins, lockers, trunks, platforms, or other similar storage configurations typically found in and around golf courses and residences, and/or fits within travel storage containers or systems for traditional golf bags.
While certain novel features of this invention shown and described below are pointed out in the annexed claims, the invention is not intended to be limited to the details specified, since a person of ordinary skill in the relevant art will understand that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and/or changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention. No feature of the invention is critical or essential unless it is expressly stated as being “critical” or “essential.”